Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, 60, leveled a .45-caliber handgun at the president on Sept. 5, 1975, but never got a shot off before Secret Service agents grabbed her. She later said she was trying to kill Ford because she thought it would help win a new trial for Manson, the bearded hippie psycho who led a band of bloodthirsty nuts bidding to start a race war in the late 1960s.

Manson, who is still in prison, was locked up at the time of the assassination attempt, along with several of his followers for killing nine people, including actress Sharon Tate. Weeks after Fromme's assassination, another Manson family creep, Sara Jane Moore, also tried to kill the president. Moore was released from prison earlier this year.

Fromme would likely already be free, but a 1987 escape, which she said she made in order to be closer to Manson, tacked more time onto her sentence. She is slated to be released from a Texas federal prison Aug. 16, just days after the 40th anniversary of Tate's murder.